Pete Townshend opens up on lots of subjects in a new Rolling Stone interview, including what he actually likes about being on tour. He doesn’t hope he dies before he gets old like he sings in My Generation.
The Who guitarist has often expressed his dislike for going on the road, but he rarely has commented on the one part he says he enjoys — that touring allows him to have a kind of social life he doesn’t normally have, which he finds “really, really valuable.”
He explains that when a Who tour gets announced, “people see our name on a billboard. If they have a phone number of a friend or someone in the crew, or they can get to my [personal assistant], they can arrange to meet me. On some occasions, we can fit in a dinner or a family visit. On other occasions, other celebrities or other band members, people I’ve never met, can come backstage and come meet me and talk about music and stuff.”
Among the other subjects Townshend discussed at length are whether he wants to retire from The Who before he gets too old, his feelings about music’s role in the hyper-polarized times we live in, the long awaited Keith Moon bio-pic, and how busy he is with outside projects.
Here’s a quote from Townshend on each of those:
- “[Who singer] Roger [Daltrey] is of the opinion that he wants to sing until he drops. That’s not my philosophy of life. There are other things that I…still want to do… I hope I’ll live long enough to do them.
- “We live in a very polarized society. As musicians we really sincerely hope that music brings the two sides together. If we can do that, that would be great. If we can’t, so be it.”
- “[The Keith Moon bio-pic] will probably happen soon. [It’s not so much a bio-pic as] the first semi-fictionalized, dramatized Who story… [Moon] was a great manipulator, a great character, a great showman. He brought a lot of joy, but he also brought a lot of hardship and difficulty. I’ve always been honest about that. It will be interesting to see how that evolves.”
- “I’m very, very busy with stuff that’s still in development, [including[ a solo project that isn’t exactly a solo album [but is] music for the art installation of my novel, The Age of Anxiety.”
Townshend says he’s also working a band called Wild Things; folk artist Reg Meuross; a song cycle and podcast about Woodie Guthrie called Fire and Dust; The Bookshop Band, which writes songs based on poems and novels; scoring an animated film called Robin Robin; and helping his wife, Rachel Fuller, on numerous projects, including one called The Seeker: Based on the Life of Siddhartha.
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